The invention relates to apparatus for manipulating photographic roll films, especially exposed but undeveloped customer films which are shipped or otherwise delivered to photographic processing laboratories for development or for development and the making of prints on photographic paper or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for manipulating undeveloped roll films in a darkroom.
It is known to admit cassettes with reels for exposed but undeveloped roll films into a darkroom, to remove the reels from their cassettes in the darkroom, to unwind films from the reels in the darkroom, and to unite a large number of films into an elongated web or strip which is converted into a large roll and is thereupon transferred from the darkroom into a developing machine. Reference may be had to German Pat. No. 25 45 214 which discloses the placing of a darkroom into a room that is illuminated by daylight or artificial light. This patent further suggests automation of the manipulation of cassettes, reels and films in the darkroom.
The apparatus of the German patent operates satisfactorily in connection with a majority of cassettes, reels and films. However, such apparatus cannot readily process certain types of cassettes or films (known as problem cassettes and films), especially the so-called 135-cassettes. Moreover, conventional apparatus cannot readily process (a) films which are convoluted on their reels in the wrong direction, particularly as a result of improper winding of film in a camera, (b) films with leading ends (tongues) whose size and/or shape deviates from a standard size and/or shape so that the leading ends cannot be engaged by the unwinding instrumentalities, (c) films which are bent or otherwise deformed to such an extent that they cannot be automatically transported from the unwinding station to the splicing station, and (d) films with damaged perforated marginal portions which interfere with orderly transport of films to the splicing station. If a presently known automatic apparatus receives such a problem cassette or film, it generates a signal after several unsuccessful attempts to process the film, and an attendant then removes the problem cassette or film from the darkroom.
The apparatus of the aforementioned German Pat. No. 25 45 214 embodies a separate film introducing facility with a channel which directs a manually inserted problem film into the channel leading to the splicing station. Such manipulation of a problem film necessitates the establishment of a second darkroom around the separate film introducing facility and the darkroom for the film unwinding and splicing devices. The darkroom for the film unwinding and splicing devices is then opened, the problem film is removed from the unwinding device, and the leading end of the problem film is introduced into the channel of the separate facility until it reaches the automatic film advancing means and is transported all the way to the splicing station. The darkroom for the unwinding and splicing devices is then sealed against penetration of light and the surrounding area is again ready to receive daylight or artificial light. Thus, the just described apparatus actually operates with two darkrooms one of which is disposed within the other and the other of which can be illuminated only when the one darkroom is adequately sealed. This creates numerous problems, especially as concerns proper synchronization of operation of various units in the inner darkroom, the overall space requirements of the apparatus and the initial and maintenance cost.
In accordance with a more recent proposal which is disclosed in commonly owned copending patent application Ser. No. 040,868 of Zangenfeind et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,076 a single darkroom is provided with two cuffs defining contractible openings for the hands of an operator. Once the hands extend through the openings of the cuffs, they can displace one or two curtains to expose an additional opening affording access to the interior of the darkroom. Such inlet renders it possible to carry out certain manipulations in the interior of the darkroom without the need for a darkening of the area around the darkroom. Zangenfeind et al. propose to remove the problem film and/or its reel and/or the respective cassette from the reel removing or unwinding unit in the darkroom and to insert it into a receptacle wherein the film is sealed from light and can be withdrawn from the darkroom for the purpose of processing in a different apparatus. For example, the film in a receptacle of the just outlined character can be processed in a so-called hanger type machine wherein the processing operation takes up much more time than in an automatic processing machine. It is further necessary to separate the corresponding customer envelope from other envelopes (for automatically processed films) so that the problem film can be inserted into the appropriate customer envelope prior to shipment to a dealer or directly to a customer. A drawback of this proposal is that the processing of problem films takes up too much time and the cost of processing is several times that of the cost of automatic processing. In addition, there is always the possibility of misplacing the problem films and/or their envelopes. Still further, it is thereupon necessary to splice the developed problem films end-to-end for transport through a copying machine if the customers owning problem films wish to obtain prints of the images of film frames. Thus, a processing laboratory wherein problem films are processed in the just outlined manner must maintain two splicing devices, one for automatically processed films and another for problem films.